Blogs in Education

Blogging in Education Session 1 Why blog in the classroom?

The first thing we need to do is establish some common terminology. Take a look at the video below from CommonCraft.




So, what is a blog? Click here for a written definition.

Additional terms you may want to know...

Another idea to consider: RSS feeds and Subscribing

Our first Activity: Blogging Workshop Playtime

Discussion Question:

What does the ability to comment on a question do for the classroom environment?

Sample Blogs

ELA: Moritz's 9th Honors Blog
Math: Haus of Math
ELA: Two Writing Teachers
Social Studies: Teaching History Matters
Science: Miss Baker's Biology Class
21 Classes as the Tool: Savage Writing Novels
Secret Life of Bees: click here
ELA: Young Adult Novels
Social Studies: Global Studies
For elementary teachers: A Not So Different Place
For the book lovers in the room: Shelfari.com
Elementary Literature: Cordle

You can search for other blogs using Technorati or Google Blog Search

A Classroom 2.0 conversation on blogging
Click here for an interesting article on blogging.

Some ideas for using a blog in the classroomedublog

Rubrics

As we all know, to make work meaningful to our students it has to have some sort of accountability attached. Rubrics are a quick and easy way to assess student contributions to your blog. Check these sites out for some examples and ideas.

http://blogagogy.wordpress.com/assessing-blogs/
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec296/assignments/blog_rubric.html
http://www.d.umn.edu/~hrallis/courses/5413su05/assignments/blogrubric.htm
http://members.tripod.com/the_english_dept/critblog2.htm
http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/file/view/blogging+rubric.pdf (Blooms Digital Taxonomy)

Everyone's Favorite...

Bloom's Digital Taxonomy






Blogging Session 2 Reintegration Activities: Please visit http://kidblog.org/BloggingWorkshop/
Classroom Blog Planning Activity

Blog Planning1.pdf

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The form listed above can be printed and used. If you'd like to be able to complete a copy of the form online and print later, you can use this form,

Blog Planning.pdf

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• Download
• 67 KB

, which is a .pdf file in which you can type. The font may initially appear large. but as the amount of text within the field increases, the font size decreases.
iNacol Online Teaching Standards
Sites for you to consider when building your own blog:

• kidblog.org Here's the blog we've been working with: http://kidblog.org/BloggingWorkshop/
• wordpress.com Here's a sample page I put up: http://gflowers1.wordpress.com/
• edublogs.org Here's a sample page I put up: http://gregflowers.edublogs.org/
• Here's another site you can use, but it only allows a limited number of users: http://www.21classes.com/

• An interesting resource:5 Don'ts of Blogging

BEST BETS FOR CLASSROOM BLOGGING BLOGGING DO'S
Taken from: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/techtorial/techtorial037print.shtml

A parting thought...

“In times of change the learners will inherit the earth, while the knowers will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. ” –Eric Hoffer